Material handling systems may employ conveyors to transport packaging about facilities. The conveyors may include rollers capable of passing rigid packages to desired locations in the facility. Examples of conveyors are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 14/550,826 and 62/210,310, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein. Some conveyors may have devices, such as transfers, tilt trays, and pushers, used to divert packages away from a main conveyor to desired locations. Examples of conveyor devices are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,984,078 and 6,227,377.
Standard material handling equipment used in distribution and order fulfillment is designed to transport and sort known shaped rigid corrugate packaging, containers, or plastic totes. Accordingly, many of the containers are designed to have a flat rigid surface of a standard size (e.g., at least 8 inches (15.24 cm) in length) and a standard shape (e.g., cuboid) to accommodate material handling equipment.
The rapid growth of direct to consumer business is increasing the use of various types of packaging, such as poly bag, bubble-wrapped and other non-rigid packaging. Fulfillment of individual orders by direct shipment has prompted the use of bags and small boxes to save shipping cost. Further, with the advent of sites to enable individuals to sell items to buyers across the globe, material handling has become less standardized and requires increasing versatility. Standard conveyors and diverters may be designed to handle certain shapes and sizes of rigid packages. However, automatic sorting of non-rigid packaging may become difficult and potentially bottleneck processing shipments.